They are the Social Justice Warriors, the SJWs, the self-appointed thought police who have been running amok throughout the West since the dawn of the politically correct era in the 1990s.

The Poisonous ‘Culture’ of Thought-Policing and Witch-Hunting

Raymond warns that the SJWs want to abandon what they call the “the pervasive cult of meritocracy” and replace it with a cult of diversity. “Open source projects suffer from a startling lack of diversity of participants, including women, people of color, and other underrepresented populations,” reads a tired SJW manifesto denounced by Raymond, who points out that meritocracy is and must remain a key part of the hacker culture.

“I’m not going to analyze SJW ideology here except to point out, again, why the hacker culture must consider anyone who holds it an enemy,” says Raymond. “This is because we must be a cult of meritocracy. We must constantly demand merit – performance, intelligence, dedication, and technical excellence – of ourselves and each other. [If] we allow the SJWs to remake us as they wish, into a hell-pit of competitive grievance-mongering and political favoritism for the designated victim group of the week – we will betray not only what is best in our own traditions but the entire civilization that we serve.”

This isn’t about women in tech, or minorities in tech, or gays in tech. The hacker culture’s norm about inclusion is clear: anybody who can pull the freight is welcome, and twitching about things like skin color or shape of genitalia or what thing you like to stick into what thing is beyond wrong into silly.”

Raymond is, rightfully, very worried about the poisonous “culture” of thought-policing and witch-hunting that the SJWs want to force on our society. SJWs are being ridiculed all over the Internet after the recent episodes of politically correct intolerance and mobbing in university campuses in the UK and the US, where the SJWs aggressively demand “safe spaces” where free thought and free speech aren’t allowed.

“A university is not a “safe space,” commented Richard Dawkins on Twitter.

The popular TV show South Park is mocking and ridiculing SJWs, and the viral video “Modern Educayshun” (two million views in the first week) hilariously shows SJWs’ “educational” philosophy. Before I forget, remember the bullshirtstorm. And here’s the latest pearl: Some SJWs in Minnesota rejected a proposal for a moment of recognition on future anniversaries of 9/11 terrorist attacks because “holding a moment of recognition over a tragedy committed by non-white perpetrators could increase racist attitudes on campus,” and others complain that their “safe space” demands receive less attention than the terror attack in Paris. Yes, really.

The open source community has, so far, resisted SJW attacks and affirmed the obvious: everyone is welcome to contribute, regardless of their skin color, gender, and sexual orientation (all of which are irrelevant), and all contributions are selected uniquely on the basis of their quality. Unfortunately, the SJWs keep trying to introduce “reverse” racism and sexism in the hacker culture, and there are rumors (unconfirmed) that they are trying to frame open source developers with fake sexual assault charges. Therefore, Raymond’s warning is timely and important. He says:

What’s there is totalitarianism in miniature: ideology is everything, merit counts for nothing against the suppression of thoughtcrime, and politics is conducted by naked intimidation against any who refuse to conform.

Ignore at your peril.

Images from Wikimedia Commons and Castalia House.

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70 Comments

70 Comments

Parrikle

November 16, 2015 at 7:58 pm

Meritocracies are exactly what the open source community should be. The difficulty is that for a meritocracy to work, it should be merit which is the one and only condition for success. Situations where people with the necessary skills are prevented from being involved destroy this. Sexism, (including “reverse sexism”), racism, (including “reverse racism”), harassment, and anything else which makes the environment less welcoming or approachable damages the meritocracy which we aspire to.

The current lack of diversity in the open source movement is not necessarily a problem in itself, but it is indicative of a situation where some of the best people that the community needs may be being kept away or discouraged. If we need to actively make the community a more accepting place in order to get the best people, then this should be something to strive towards.

With all that said, I really don’t have much time for Raymond’s “people are secretly plotting to create fake sexual assault charges against Torvalds” conspiracy. Unless there is more to it than an anonymous person on IRC making extreme claims, there is no value in giving this oxygen. Let Raymond provide real proof, or let the conspiracy theory die.

It is one thing to say people have “targeted” Linus. It’s another thing to claim a criminal conspiracy to create fake sexual assault charges based on an anonymous claim made over IRC.

In regard to people being kept out – I gather from current statistics about the open source community that there is a problem with a lack of diversity. But that’s not the point I’m trying to make. My issue is that if it is the case the the community is keeping people away, then this damages the ability of open source to be a meritocracy. We can’t dismiss claims that the community is driving talented programmers away simply by saying that it is a meritocracy, and claim that we don’t need to make it a more equal environment. If merit is to be the only factor that determines one’s place in open source, then we need to make sure that it is the only factor – that the treatment of people based on gender, race, religion or any other issue is not preventing those with the skills the community needs from taking part. The extent to which this is a problem is another debate, but making a welcoming environment where anyone with skill can flourish is not something that happens without effort.

Speculating endlessly about mythical diverse programmers who are being kept away is completely pointless. Statistics also shows us that 100% of all sewer workers are male, but I have yet to hear a single feminist demand that more women work in sewers.

Maybe programming simply doesn’t appeal to girls the same way it does to boys.

Please identify by name programmers who wan’t to contribute but are being kept away.

I have a hassle with the knee-jerk “SJWs are evil” claim, where any argument that improving how people are treated in the open source community is met with claims that it is already perfect, and therefore doesn’t need improving. Why is there this resistance to a simple claim that treating people better is a good idea? Because that’s what this boils down to – don’t be sexist, don’t be racist, don’t use language that alienates people, don’t harass people. Don’t put up barriers that might make it harder for skilled people to contribute, and pull down any that exist. Worst case scenario is that the open source community continues to lack diversity, but people are politer. Best case is that a greater range of different people will get involved, improving the community and the projects.

In regard to examples, that’s not something I have a lot of experience in, although I do encounter it daily in wider STEM fields. People who have commented on it include a piece by Ashe Dyden:

This is what these CoC’s are about, creating “safe spaces” for every group but hetero white men. These may be trolled, harassed or attacked.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 3:10 am

That’s your interpretation. Personally, I see something different, although i also disagree with the statement regarding “reversisms”. Fundamentally, if the open source community was more respectful of personal interactions, along with the existing technical ones, it would be a better place for everyone involved. This wouldn’t be the case if it permitted anyone to be trolled, harassed or attacked, regardless of gender, race or religion.

plasmacutter

November 17, 2015 at 12:52 pm

That’s your interpretation.

“interpretation”?

Forgive my incredulity: It’s spelled out explicitly!

The fact is that these people want to put tone policing over getting anything done, the obvious intent being to parasitically attach to communities and re-focus them on their narcissistic drama rather than their original purpose!

Shrom

November 17, 2015 at 7:13 pm

Tolerance for intolerance being a fundamental aspect of SJW’s, these CoC’s also introduce intolerance for tolerance. “Nice job there, have a hug” is a microagression, the latest meme from sociologists.
Even though the moderators might disregarded this absurdity, it gives the feminazis and other extremists ammunition. Roll a dice and if unlucky they will start dogpiling. Enjoy your removal, “harasser” and “stalker”.

I don’t want SJW’s to guard the gates of opensource, I also don’t want them to inject sociological memes. You cannot please them. Stop trying.

Giulio Prisco

November 17, 2015 at 8:57 am

I like the Mulllins and Cook piece and I totally agree on “there is an abundance of [non-coding] contributions and skill sets that are just as valuable to the community.”

Merging Linux kernel and Ubuntu interface development would probably create a culture clash, so things work better with two separate projects where one depends on the other but is free to expand on it.

In general, open source development is layers upon layers upon layers, and that works well in practice. There is nothing that prevents a team to create their own project, where they can improve in coding, non-coding, and why not also cultural aspects of other projects.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 3:13 am

I don;t know if it will help, but Sarah Sharp gave an excellent account of why she left because of the situation within the Linux kernel community.

Sarah’s main point is: “Linux kernel maintainers are often blunt, rude, or brutal to get
their job done. Top Linux kernel developers often yell at each other in
order to correct each other’s behavior.
That’s not a communication style that works for me.”

I also prefer working with people with a calm and polite communication style, but that’s not the issue here. It would be different if the kernel developers were nice to straight white men but rude to others. But I don’t think that’s the case, and Sarah doesn’t say it is. She is just saying that she left because she doesn’t like a blunt communication style. She isn’t making a gender issue.

gaultfalcon

November 19, 2015 at 5:44 pm

My sincere hope is that someone here deeply hurts your feelings and that precipitates a scenario where you go to a reclusive “safe space” never to emerge distracting us with your confusion on basic human action.

Corey Hendrix

November 19, 2015 at 10:02 am

You want to say something about programming by saying something about women’s brains versus men’s brains. If you want a meritocracy, then stick to talking about programming, and leave the brain science to the neuroscientists and the social science to the social scientists. (btw, the Y chromosome is the male one, not X. Everyone has X) I do research in neuroscience, on vision in the brain specifically, and we don’t even make claims about other parts of the brain that fall outside of the area that we study. There is a lot of great research by neuroscientists about men’s and women’s brains if you are interested.

codeGrit

November 16, 2015 at 9:38 pm

> the treatment of people based on gender, race, religion or any other issue is not preventing those with the skills the community needs from taking part.

It just doesn’t happen that way. As someone who’s contributed to, and maintained, open source projects for 15+ years, I’ve never seen anyone have the information required to base their decisions on anything other than merit. I’ve never seen anyone say “What race are you?” or “What gender are you?” on a pull request. It’s completely irrelevant.

I’ve seen people use their race, or gender, as a means of getting an otherwise sub-par PR accepted.. but I’ve never seen a great PR not accepted because someone asked the committers gender/race.

Others have seen things differently, and have said that they have witnessed people being harassed, driven away, and discouraged because of their gender. Certainly there is a problem shown in the statistics – according to Dryden, women account for 28% of contributors to propriety software, but only 1.5% of contributors to open source. Even if it isn’t quite that big a difference, it suggests that the open source community is missing out.

plasmacutter

November 16, 2015 at 11:06 pm

A friend of a friend of a friend saw a UFO once.

We should clearly be diverting every dollar of defense spending to combatting the imminent and pressing AYYLAMO threat!

hurin

November 17, 2015 at 4:21 am

Or the more likely reason is the 28% counts women who aren’t actually programmers.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 4:24 am

Maybe that’s the case, although speaking as a developer, open source projects need more than just people who can cut code. However, if it is the case that coders are significantly less than 28%, then mostly that just reminds us that we’re missing out on talented people in propriety development, too.

hurin

November 17, 2015 at 4:28 am

No we really aren’t. Just we aren’t missing out on female sewer workers. Programming simply doesn’t appeal as much to girls as it does to boys because their brains aren’t wired the same way.
Proprietary software contains a lot more graphics than open software, so that is likely where the 28% comes from.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 4:32 am

As soon as you say that girl’s brains aren’t suited to programming, you are positioning your views as exactly the sort of thing we need to fight against. Speaking from years of experience, women are just as likely to be skilled at programming as men.

hurin

November 17, 2015 at 4:36 am

Women also aren’t suited to be firefighters, because they lack the muscle tissue needed to carry people to safety, which is why the only way for people like you to get them accepted is to lower the standards on the physical tests.

The reality is that the X chromosome carries a lot more than just a penis.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 4:41 am

Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit on this. Yes, there are physical differences between men and women, but to say that women don’t have the brains to be good at programming is 1950’s sexist rubbish. The world has moved on from that. I have worked with and trained thousands of programmers, and the women were just as good as the men.

I guess there’s no point in continuing this line. This is exactly the sort of view that we’re fighting against in the industry. Programming skill is not something that comes down to gender.

hurin

November 17, 2015 at 4:45 am

No I guess there really isn’t. Because I also call bullshit on your claim to have trained programmer.

In reality you’re probably unemployed and living in a basement somewhere.

hurin

November 17, 2015 at 4:33 am

It is the same in online gaming. Most of the time you have no idea about the sex and race of the people you’re playing with or against, which is why the accusations of gaming being hostile to women are so absurd.

If that is what is being called for, it doesn’t. If the call is for improving how we work with other people in the open source community, it will. Calling for better behaviour and increasing diversity doesn’t necessarily equate to calling for a witch hunt.

Giulio Prisco

November 17, 2015 at 8:25 am

And that’s the problem indeed. The SJWs don’t call for better behavior and improving how we work with other people – nobody would disagree with that, I most certainly wouldn’t. The SJWs call for censorship, which hunts, and mobbing.

Suppressing free thought and free speech and mobbing those who dare to disagree is NOT a way to improve how we work with others.

I like sport and sport fans, but I don’t like hooligans. If the SJWs behave like hooligans, they deserve being treated like hooligans.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 8:39 am

The problem is that this isn’t how “SJW” is being used – it is being used as a catch all for people fighting for improving inclusiveness in FOSS. Using your analogy, it is as if every sports fan is being categorized as a hooligan simply because they like sports. What ESR calls a witch hunt is just as likely to be nothing more than a reasonable call for improved behaviour – the term is thrown around to try and say that the open source community is already great, and these “horrible SJWs” are infiltrating the movement to destroy it. The movement is not perfect, and it has a poor record for how it has treated women, to it’s own detriment. Yet when it is argued that this can and should be improved, we get “SJW!” thrown around, and claims like here where we are told that women don’t have the “right brains” for programming.

Change is always difficult. Making any community more inclusive is painful and heavily resisted by those who either like it how it is, or who refuse to look at the problems. But change can be necessary, and the open source community needs to change in order to grow stronger. Calling for this doesn’t make me an SJW, even though I see I’m already being called one, but it does make me someone who cares about open source and how it will grow into the future.

Giulio Prisco

November 17, 2015 at 9:07 am

Re “What ESR calls a witch hunt is just as likely to be nothing more than a reasonable call for improved behaviour.”

Those are two different things. Some people reasonably call for respectful behavior, and some other people – the SJWs – call for thought-policing, witch hunts, and mobbing. Just like some people like sports, and some other people – the hooligans – use sports as a pretext to smash heads.

Sport fans know that the hooligans discredit them and make people think that every sport fan is a hooligan. Therefore, they try to disown and marginalize the hooligans. That’s what, I suggest, those who really care for social justice should do.

My main concern is that SJWs are discrediting social justice and making it ridiculous. Pasting from my previous article:

I find the SJWs very annoying. But they are also dangerous, because they are making social justice – the hard-won policies of equal opportunity for everyone regardless of their ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation – ridiculous, and giving the high moral ground to the real enemies of social justice. I don’t like Vox Day and Breitbart – please don’t let them be right.

The fundamentalist identity politics of SJWs is menacing the rights – won with blood – to free speech and free thought, creating social tensions, and pushing social tensions to the breaking point where bad things, like fake criminal charges or worse, could really happen.

Parrikle

November 17, 2015 at 10:58 am

There are always extremists, and I’m with you in agreeing that the term “SJW” can be used to describe them, and that extremists are a problem. The issue I have is that it is also used to describe anyone arguing for any change on social grounds, to such an extent that it has lost all meaning. When someone says “SJW” they might mean “extremist”, but they might be using it just to devalue someone who’s argument is perfectly reasonable, but with whom they disagree. We’ve reach a point where overuse of the term has rendered it meaningless, and when someone handwaves at the “SJW menace” I don’t know if they are referring to the worst extremists, or just anyone arguing for inclusion and diversity. Or, indeed, if they see a distinction.

Looking at Raymond’s article, it reads as a “reds under the bed” diatribe. From the article, I gather that evil, unnamed and ill-defined SJWs are trying to destroy the open source movement by using calls for diversity and inclusionist language as part of their cunning plan. There’s nothing in there to suggest that Raymond is distinguishing between more reasonable approaches and the extremists. This isn’t a call to stop the extremest elements, so much as a call to stop pushes for increased diversity and inclusiveness in order to prevent this terrible evil from getting a foothold.

I share your concern about extremists. But from what I see in Raymond’s article, the call is to fight any change to improve diversity and inclusiveness, using the SJW menace as an excuse. It feels an awful lot like the McCarthyism of old.

Giulio Prisco

November 17, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Re “[T]hey might be
using it just to devalue someone who’s argument is perfectly reasonable,
but with whom they disagree… when someone handwaves at the “SJW menace” I don’t know if they are
referring to the worst extremists, or just anyone arguing for inclusion
and diversity. Or, indeed, if they see a distinction.”

Of course there are also anti-SJW extremists, who take advantage of the growing anti-SJW sentiment to advance their own political agenda.

But that’s exactly my point: SJWs are handing weapons to the real enemies of social justice.

That fringe lunatic extremists are against you isn’t a real problem. You have a real problem when reasonable people turn against you.

plasmacutter

November 17, 2015 at 2:18 pm

pushing social tensions to the breaking point where bad things, like fake criminal charges or worse, could really happen.

Their latest tactic against online outlets which allow speech they dislike is to upload mountains of kiddie porn and report to the webhost to have the whole site and domain seized.

hurin

November 17, 2015 at 7:05 pm

Can confirm the part about the kiddie porn. So far SJW’s have targeted 8chan, Voat and Slimgur using these tactics.

plasmacutter

November 17, 2015 at 1:08 pm

he problem is that this isn’t how “SJW” is being used – it is being used as a catch all for people fighting for improving inclusiveness in FOSS.

What a blatant motte and bailey argument.

Every reasonable person knows to remove cancer from their communities.

The push for explicit and rigid “Codes of Conduct” comes with the obvious ulterior motive of “gaming” those codes of conduct in order to eject eminently qualified people over petty personal grievances or unrelated political stances, as happened in Opalgate and Mozilla.

Sean Pan

November 21, 2015 at 12:01 am

This is ridiculous. The communication is rough and unpleasant because the same viciousness precludes the passions of great achievers. Creating “safe spaces” is like having a therapist for a drill sarge. IT DOES NOT WORK.

“How did that push up make you feel, soldier? I accept you unconditionally as you are. Take a break if the run is too hard.”

Fuck that.

Parrikle

November 21, 2015 at 7:23 am

I find it interesting that the analogies given are things like firefighters and soldiers. Software development doesn’t have to be combative. There are other models which work, are inclusive of a range of different people, and produce superb code.

Sean Pan

November 22, 2015 at 6:31 am

I’m one of the top paid automation engineers(a “mercenary consultant”) and am closing in on two decades of experience, growing up in hacking communities starting from old style BBSes. The best coders are ten, sometimes a hundred times better – it is a competitive field.

Other models of what? Letting the weakest chain drag down the others? Sure, go ahead. You do that, please, have the SJWs keep up trying to make stuff and failing as they always do.

Because that infection is weakness.

Parrikle

November 22, 2015 at 6:40 am

Working in a volunteer environment such as Open Source is a different situation than working in a commercial environment. Even in a commercial setting, getting the best staff can involve making sure that you have an environment in the work place where they are comfortable and willing to stay in. That said, money can overcome a lot of issues. In open source, we are asking skilled programmers to sacrifice their time in order to build something that we can all share in. Alienating some of the best of those programmers through creating a non-inclusive and combative environment isn’t in the interests of the movement.

Even if the best coders do need a competitive environment, that’s not necessarily the coders you have in most projects. Some models, such as things like Scrum, make the best use of the skills you have on had. What you describe is one approach, but it isn’t necessarily the best one.

Sean Pan

November 22, 2015 at 6:44 pm

There are a few reasons why people contribute time and value; one of the most consistent ones – just look at any gaming – is the sense of competition. You see that on GIT all of the time, and the open source projects which I follow.

jlenoconel

December 16, 2015 at 9:45 am

He created Linux. Fuck this bitch. These feminists basically want to take over something men have created and claim it as their own.

editors who refuse to help me push my bigoted, man-hating pov are ‘sexist” and “abusive”

Shouldn’t you be whining before a UN panel on “cyberviolence”?

Oh.. and yet another case of projection, calling people sexist for opposing YOUR sexism.

Giulio Prisco

November 17, 2015 at 7:43 am

Re “I really don’t have much time for Raymond’s “people are secretly plotting to create fake sexual assault charges against Torvalds” conspiracy”

Neither do I, but the allegation has a somewhat plausible flavor. Pasting from my previous article:

Normally, unsubstantiated rumors spread by unidentified informants in
online chat rooms shouldn’t be taken seriously. In fact, I think the
rumor is at least exaggerated… I don’t take this rumor seriously. But unconfirmed rumors don’t go viral without deep reasons. In this case, the reason is that Raymond’s post touched an open nerve. Unfortunately, there are more and more disturbing cases of political correctness run dangerously amok in the tech world.

That wouldn’t have been appropriate. This isn’t a neutral informative article, I mostly agree with Raymond and I wanted to make that clear in the title. I don’t necessarily agree with other Raymond’s writings, but I mostly agree with what he says here.

I’ll ignore most of this weak, stunted, libertarian drivel and there will be zero peril in doing so. I’ll leave the victimizing of oneself from the scary-wary feminists, progressives, etc. to the paranoid, obsessive weaklings.

Stop stalking, harassing, tone policing and being generally problematic to him 🙁 You’re on the wrong side of history, libertarian scum! The feminist future world will be great, the government will be so massive and all-controlling, how can this not turn out great!

How did I create a strawman (and how did you not create a strawman :^)? You called libertarianism 3 flavors of bad, namely: weak, stunted, paranoid. Do you deny you made these claims? If you don’t, then I did not create a strawman.

I agree fully with the importance of the best code. The issue is that to have the best code we need the best programmers. If we’re missing out on good developers because the community is excluding them, then this is to the detriment of the open source movement.

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Alleged FBI Hacker Lauri Love Ordered to US Extradition by UK Home Secretary

The long-running court saga of Lauri Love, a British hacker and activist accused of compromising and stealing data from the likes of the FBI, NASA and the US Federal Reserve has been ordered by the UK’s home secretary for his extradition to the United States.

31-year-old Love who has Asperger’s syndrome launched a legal challenge to avoid his extradition to the U.S., following a court ruling by a UK judge in September 2016. Love, who suffers from depression and eczema argued against the extradition ruling, claiming it could lead him to a mental breakdown or suicide. Despite his plea, the ruling district judge, Nina Tempia, determined that Love would be cared for by medical facilities in the United States, while accepting that Love suffered “both physical and mental issues.”

On the other side of the pond, Love potentially faces legal proceedings in three different US jurisdictions, reports the Guardian. Meanwhile, the UK home secretary had been given a deadline of November 16, in order to decide if Love was to be extradited or not. A day before the deadline, Rudd signed the order for Love’s extradition to the US. His lawyers believe he faces up to 99 years in prison if convicted of charges related to hacking.

The UK Home Office stated that Rudd had “carefully considered all relevant matters” before ruling:

The US has ruthlessly persecuted hackers and digital activists for years, and nobody expects that to improve under President Trump. Theresa May set a good example by protecting Gary McKinnon back in 2012. For a home secretary in her government now to willingly send a brilliant and vulnerable UK citizen to Donald Trump’s America beggars belief.

Lori’s alleged hacking endeavors were a part of #Oplastresort, an operation by Anonymous, the global hacktivist collective. This particular operation was in response to the treatment endured by Aaron Swartz a prominent programmer and hacktivist. Swartz faced 35 years In prison, asset forfeiture and a million dollars in fines with two counts of wire fraud. Swartz committed suicide for his alleged computer crimes.

Love’s legal defense is certain to bring up the unfortunate series of events that led to Swartz committing suicide under the threat of persecution. Love has 14 days to appeal against Rudd’s order and will almost certainly do so.

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An email on behalf of Apollo astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta turned up in the recent data dumps. The email was sent by Rebecca Wright of the Institute of Exoconsciousness.

Mitchell requested in an email dated July 29, 2014 to meet with President Barack Obama to discuss extraterrestrial disclosure, but was partially rebuffed.

“Fifty years ago Battelle, Brookings and RAND studies on UFOs convinced the government to remove knowledge of the extraterrestrial presence from the citizens of our country. These organizations advised with their best information. However, today much, if not most, of the extraterrestrial reality they examined is known by our citizens,” the e-mail states. “These organizations’ resultant strategies and policies of 50 years ago no longer hold credibility or benefit.” Mitchell says a well-informed public is important to further disclosure.

Podesta’s secretary wrote Mitchell saying Mr. Podesta would rather meet alone before arranging a meeting with Obama. A Skype meeting was scheduled for Aug 11, but whether or not the meeting happened is unclear. Mitchell died in February 2016.

According to the leaks, former Blink 182 frontman Tom Delonge emailed John Podesta twice about extraterrestrial beings.

“Things are moving with the project. The novels, films and nonfiction works are blooming and finishing,” DeLonge said in an October 2015 email to Podesta. “I would like to bring two very ‘important’ people out to meet you in DC. I think you will find them very interesting, as they were principal leadership relating to our sensitive topic.” DeLonge emailed again later.

“When Roswell crashed, they shipped it to the laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. General McFasland was in charge of that exact laboratory up to a couple years ago,” DeLonge wrote. “He not only knows what I’m trying to achieve, he helped assemble my advisory team. He’s a very important man.”

Hacked reported in 2015 that DeLonge was working on various ET-related projects, and the former pop-punk superstar, whose 1999 album Enema of the State sold 15 million copies worldwide, has since released books and plans to release a documentary on extra terrestrials.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Justin O'Connell is the founder of financial technology focused CryptographicAsset.com.
Justin organized the launch of the largest Bitcoin ATM hardware and software provider in the world at the historical Hotel del Coronado in southern California.
His works appear in the U.S.'s third largest weekly, the San Diego Reader, VICE and elsewhere.

Hacktivists represent a broad range of personalities and goals. They’ve recently played a greater role in the collective conscious as cyber attacks at banks and governments become a more regular occurrence.

1. Edward Snowden

President Obama once said of Edward Snowden: “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker.”

Edward Snowden became notorious after blowing the whistle on mass surveillance in the United States and abroad. It’s been estimated that, since the whistleblowing, Snowden is one of the most powerful figures on Twitter.

I forgot to turn off notifications. Twitter sent me an email for each:

American hacktivist Aaron Swartz took part in the development of the web feed format RSS, as well as the organization Creative Commons. A partner in Reddit, he ultimately committed suicide while under federal investigation for data-theft.

Arrested by MIT police on January 6, 2011, Swartz faced breaking-and-entering charges due to installing a computer in an Institute closet to download academic journal articles from JSTOR. Federal prosecutors charged him with two counts wire fraud and eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Swartz faced $1 million in fines and 35 years in prison. Swartz declined a plea bargain under which he would have served six months in federal prison. When prosecution rejected his counteroffer, he was found dead by hanging in his Brooklyn apartment two days later. In June 2013, Swartz was posthumously inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.

3. The Jester

Who The Jester is, nobody knows. He claims responsibility for many, many DoS (Denial of Service) attacks against WikiLeaks, Islamist sites, homophobic sites and the President of Iran. He claims responsibility for developing DoS software, XerXes.

With Wikileaks in the news, almost makes you wonder: Where’s The Jester now?

4. Barrett Brown

Barrett Brown worked closely with Anonymous. The former writer was not a formidable coder or hacker, but he became a marketing figure for the hacking group, including news appearances. Brown has faced numerous charges related to hacking. In January 2015, he was sentenced to 63 months.

5. Hector Xavier Monsegur (Sabu)

Sabu co-founded Lulzsec, going onto receiving press attention after a 50-day hacking spurt targeting the likes of the CIA, Fox, Stratfor, and the US Senate and others. Sabu later turned away from hacktivism, becoming an informant for the FBI and working for them for more than ten months.

6. Jake Davis (Topiary)

This once active member of Anonymous moved onto LulzSec. During a court appearance in 2011, he pleaded guilty to a charge related to a hack on the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s (SOCA) website. Davis ran the LulzSec Twitter account. Details on his computer leaked him to a hack of Sony.

7. Oxblood Ruffin

Canadian hacker Oxblood Ruffin is the “Foreign Minister” of the Cult of the Dead Cow network, a hacktivist group. Oxblood can often be seen in the media criticizing the actions of Anonymous and LulzSec.

8. Deric Lostutter (KYAnonymous)

When two members of an Ohio high school football team were charged with the rape of an intoxicated 16-year-old girl, Lostutter helped leak a video of two Ohio high school football players joking about the rape of an intoxicated 16-year-old girl. He faces charges for hacking a fan page of the football team and could face a 10-year prison sentence.

9. Ron Gonggrijp

This Dutch hacker speaks out against surveillance on citizens by governments and the lack of security in public electronic voting systems. He became a well-known teenage hacker and even appeared in the Jan Jacobs’s book Kraken en Computers (Hacking and computers, Veen uitgevers 1985, ISBN 90-204-2651-6) which details the early hacking scene in the Netherlands. Authorities in the Netherlands and the United States considered him a “major security threat.’

10. Jacob Appelbaum

Appelbaum, a Cult of the Dead Cow member, is reportedly a key player behind Tor and now an American journalist. He is the co-founder of the San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge and has worked for kink.com and Greenpeace. Appelbaum was a trusted confidant of NSA’s Edward Snowden and had access to Snowden’s top secret documents during the 2013 global surveillance disclosure.

11. Gary Mckinnon

Mckinnon is responsible for what’s called the “biggest military computer hack of all time.” He hacked almost 100 American military and NASA servers in 13 months from 2001 to 2002. His goal while hacking NASA was to discover evidence of extraterrestrials.

“A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging,” he said. “I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.”

12. John McAfee

The 2016 Presidential Candidate, John McAfee, had a run-in with authorities who he claims set him up for murder. He hacked every major computer of Belize government bureaucracies to prove his innocence. He found evidence that implicated officials in corruption, laundering, drug running and murder. He organized his own escape out of Belize to avoid arrest. He recently posted on social media he got into a shootout with police, though this was a joke.

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Justin O'Connell is the founder of financial technology focused CryptographicAsset.com.
Justin organized the launch of the largest Bitcoin ATM hardware and software provider in the world at the historical Hotel del Coronado in southern California.
His works appear in the U.S.'s third largest weekly, the San Diego Reader, VICE and elsewhere.

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